Post up interesting facts about writers. I'll start with three: Edgar Allan Poe married his 13 year old cousin who died of tuberculosis two years after the publication of "The Raven." Ernest Hemingway was in two plane crashes, one of which he escaped by head-butting a door to get out, leaving him with multiple skull fractures. British Sci-Fi author Michael Moorcock wrote lyrics and performed with space-rock group Hawkwind, and also struggles with at times serious mental health problems, which he explored in his novel "Mother London."
Irish avant garde novelist and playwright Samuel Beckett gave his prize money away when he won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1969. He spent most of his time in Paris and wrote much of his work in French, in order to avoid an Anglicized style. He then translated his own work from French into English.
Viz a viz 2 of the above mentioned -Samuel Becket once said William S. Burroughs writing was or at least bore a resemblance to 'plumming'. I think he meant the cut ups.Burroughs expresssed an appreciation of Becket's work. I think both were at genius level. Norman Mailer had a great aversion to plastic, which he called 'the excretion of oil'.I always felt empathy with Norman ( another fave of mine) on that point.
After his failure as a young would be revolutionay to incite the Irish to rebellion, Shelly described the Irish working class as 'One mass of animated filth'. I always thoght that's a desdcription that might undergo the phenomeneon of 'creep' and end up applying more widely than only Ireland - but that's just me of course with my own bias - pro Shelly definitely. In the top 5 of english poets.
R. Buckminster Fuller had 47 honorary doctorates, 28 patents, wrote 28 books, circled the globe 57 times, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, had a song dedecated to him by John Denver, and was nominated for a Nobel prize. His formal education stopped in his freshman year of college. He once took a vow of silence for a year because :
Roy Clarke, better known as a scriptwriter for the BBC write several books. His series 'last of the summer wine' was based on his experiences at home in Yorkshire when he worked as a policeman. He and his wire still live there, but his home is a far cry from Nora Batty's house. A lot of people are unaware that he also wrote 'keeping up appearances'. The series ended because Patrica Routledge refused to continue for fear of becoming 'type cast'
Franz Kafka was never published in his lifetime, and stipulated in his will that he never wanted his works published posthumously. His novels and short stories, including "Metamorphosis" which narrated the story of a young man who awakes one morning to find himself transformed into a beetle, subsequently came to be among the most celebrated in modern literature.
Isaac Asimov wrote more than 500 books on topics such as atomic theory, chemistry, astronomy, physics, and science fiction. His works include 40 novels, 382 short stories, and over 280 non fiction books. His first science fiction story, "Cosmic Corkscrew" was rejected. Asimov was the vice president of Mensa until he resigned: He had a B.S. in chemistry, an M.A. and a Ph.D. He taught at the Boston University School of medicine.
Chuck Palanuik was an in the closet homosexual when he wrote Fight Club. A few people who read it guessed he was gay from certain subtle hints in the book. When he did come out of the closet, he admitted he didn’t realize he did that.
Isaac Asimov's parents smuggled him out of the Soviet Union in a steamer trunk. He grew up poor in NYC, where his library card was his best friend. Phillip K. Dick believed he was in telepathic communication with aliens in orbit. Steven King is the weirdest thing in the entire state of Maine.
